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Viewers Seek Fairness in TV Political News
The Hess Report by Stephen Hess
USA Today (10/22/00)
Is it fair? The TV networks' coverage of the presidential campaign, that is.
That's the question I'm asked most often. And it's devilishly hard to answer. But here goes.
The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) in Washington devised one way to test TV fairness.
Take all the statements about the Democratic and Republican candidates that are made on the evening news by journalists, voters and "experts" (but not by the candidates or their representatives) and categorize them as positive or negative.
A voter tells ABC, "He's an affable guy; he's got a lot of charm" (Bush, positive). Another voter says on CBS, "When I heard about the 'rat' thing, the first thing that came to my mind was Nixon and Watergate" (Bush, negative).
Add up the positives and negatives, and you get a fairness score.
When the center applied the fairness test to the campaign between George Bush and Bill Clinton in 1992, Clinton's coverage was substantially more positive. The explanation, according to scholars, was that presidents get heavier press scrutiny. Or as veteran journalist Roger Mudd put it, the media has an "anti-incumbency bias."
But four years later, when Clinton was the incumbent, he still got a lot more favorable coverage than his challenger, Bob Dole. Out went anti-incumbency bias; in came "liberal media" bias.
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THIS WEEK'S AWARDS |
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Governance Award:
Julie Chen, correspondent; Nadine Witken, producer; "Election Countdown: Social Security," The Early Show (CBS), Oct. 9.
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Campaign Award:
Anthony Mason, correspondent; Terri Belli, producer; "Campaign Spending," CBS Evening News, Oct. 10.
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Interview Award:
Interview Award: Gwen Ifill, interviewer; Peggy Robinson, producer; interviews with David Broder, David Brooks and Tom Oliphant, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), Oct. 10.
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Fred W. Friendly Award:
Peter Jennings, correspondent; Keith Summa, producer; The Gun Fight news special (ABC), Oct. 9.
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Dole implored his audiences not to watch television: "Don't let them make up your mind for you."
Supporters of the liberal bias theory cite a survey by Indiana University's David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit. It reported that 44% of American journalists lean Democratic and 16% lean Republican.
But how does that jibe with the heavily negative coverage that Clinton got in his first term? Or even the positive press that Pat Buchanan got when he ran in the primaries in 1992?
The answer, CMPA President Robert Lichter concludes, is that election journalism doesn't reward or reflect ideology or even previous achievements - Dole had been praised as the Senate majority leader. Rather, it rewards campaigning skills.
Which brings us to this campaign. After six weeks, Lichter's group finds that Gore's coverage is 39% positive and 61% negative; Bush's coverage is 33% positive and 67% negative.
Once again, we are reminded that negativity has become a feature of news broadcasting. But so far, there is no pronounced bias in favor of one candidate. Or, more exactly, those numbers are summarizing a roller-coaster ride, with huge swings of week-by-week positive and negative coverage. In the sixth week alone, Gore's positive coverage dropped 19 points, just as earlier Bush had a one-week rise of 26 points.
Unfortunately, as someone who has had the honor of serving on the White House staffs of two presidents, Eisenhower and Nixon, I've seen that the daily campaigning that is the focus of most network coverage is a very inaccurate indicator of necessary presidential skills: the ability to negotiate with allies and adversaries around the world, build congressional coalitions or run a huge organization, for instance.
Too bad journalists choose not to be more helpful to us as voters.
The winners of the Hess Report awards for Oct. 9-15 (details at www.brookings.edu/hessreport):
Governance Award: Julie Chen, correspondent; Nadine Witken, producer; "Election Countdown: Social Security," The Early Show (CBS), Oct. 9.
Campaign Award: Anthony Mason, correspondent; Terri Belli, producer; "Campaign Spending," CBS Evening News, Oct. 10.
Interview Award: Gwen Ifill, interviewer; Peggy Robinson, producer; interviews with David Broder, David Brooks and Tom Oliphant, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), Oct. 10.
Fred Friendly Award for long-form journalism: Peter Jennings, correspondent; Keith Summa, producer; The Gun Fight news special (ABC), Oct. 9.
©COPYRIGHT 2000 USA
TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
WEEK 6: 2000 ELECTION DATA
Horse Race and Substance Stories as Percent of Total Campaign Coverage: Weeks 1-6 of General Election
1992-2000
Substantive stories are those providing extensive discussion of policy issues or the candidates' qualifications or professional background, or both. Horse Race stories focus on who's ahead, who's behind, and candidate election strategies. Statistics on the percent of stories based on total number of election stories from that particular news organization. Both substantive policy issues and election strategies/horse race topics may be found within the same story. Based on 417 stories from August 31, 1992 to October 11, 1992; 259 stories from September 2, 1996 to October 13, 1996; 229 stories from September 4, 2000 to October 15, 2000 from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news.
Data: Center For Media And Public Affairs/Brookings
Horse Race and Substance Stories as Percent of Total Campaign Coverage: Weeks 1-6 of General Election
2000
Substantive stories are those providing extensive discussion of policy issues or the candidates' qualifications or professional background, or both. Horse Race stories focus on who's ahead, who's behind, and candidate election strategies. Statistics on the percent of stories based on total number of election stories from that particular news organization. Both substantive policy issues and election strategies/horse race topics may be found within the same story. Based on 229 stories from September 4, 2000 to October 15, 2000 from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. Between September 4-October 13, 2000 PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer aired 126 campaign stories, of those stories 68% discussed substantive policy issues and 31% discussed election strategies and/or horse race topics.
Data: Center For Media And Public Affairs/Brookings
Minutes Devoted to Campaign Coverage: ABC, CBS, NBC
2000
Based on 229 stories from September 4, 2000 to October 15, 2000 from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. Between the dates September 4-October 13, 2000 PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer devoted 603 minutes to campaign coverage (based on 126 campaign stories).
Data: Center For Media And Public Affairs/Brookings
Number of Campaign Stories : ABC, CBS, NBC
2000
Based on 229 stories from September 4, 2000 to October 15, 2000 from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer aired 126 campaign stories between September 4-October 13, 2000.
Data: Center For Media And Public Affairs/Brookings
Tone of Candidate Coverage: General Election
2000
Statistics on the percent of positive and negative evaluations based on total number of evaluations in the stories. Explicitly negative and positive statements by non-partisan sources were considered when judging whether coverage was negative or positive. Based on 229 stories from September 4, 2000 to October15, 2000 from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. Between September 4-October 13, 2000 PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer had 57% positive and 43% negative evaluations of Bush, and 57% positive and 43% negative evaluations of Gore (based on evaluations in 126 stories).
During Week 3 there were too few evaluations for George W. Bush to report meaningful results.
Data: Center For Media And Public Affairs/Brookings
First 6 Weeks of 1992, 1996, 2000 General Elections
1992 was the high water mark for coverage, and 1996 was the low water mark for coverage. 2000 is below 1996.
Substantive stories are those providing extensive discussion of policy issues or the candidates' qualifications or professional background, or both. Horse Race stories focus on who's ahead, who's behind, and candidate election strategies. Statistics on the percent of stories based on total number of election stories from that particular news organization. Both substantive policy issues and election strategies/horse race topics may be found within the same story.
Based on 417 stories from August 31, 1992 to October 11, 1992; 259 stories from September 2, 1996 to October 13, 1996; 229 stories from September 4, 2000 to October 15, 2000 from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news.
Data: Center For Media And Public Affairs/Brookings
Positive/ Negative Ratings for 1992, 1996, 2000 General Election
Statistics on the percent of positive and negative evaluations based on total number of evaluations in the stories. Explicitly negative and positive statements by non-partisan sources were considered when judging whether coverage was negative or positive. Based 772 stories from September 7, 1992 to November 3, 1992; 483 stories from September 2, 1996 to November 4, 1996; 229 stories from September 4, 2000 to October15, 2000 from the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news. Between September 4-October 13, 2000 PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer had 57% positive and 43% negative evaluations of Bush, and 57% positive and 43% negative evaluations of Gore (based on evaluations in 126 stories).
Data: Center For Media And Public Affairs/Brookings
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